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Final Note

Congressman blocks trillion-dollar coin idea

Kai Ryssdal Jan 7, 2013
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Final Note

Congressman blocks trillion-dollar coin idea

Kai Ryssdal Jan 7, 2013
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This final note today, about the numismatics of the debt ceiling crisis that’s gonna be upon us as soon as the Treasury Department runs out of money mid-February or early March sometime.

We told you Friday about the trillion-dollar platinum coin, a semi-tongue-in-cheek drive to get the Treasury Secretary to mint just a single coin, made of platinum, decide that it’s worth a trillion dollars and then use it to backstop all our debt.

Well, it was a good idea while it lasted. Oregon Republican Congressman Greg Walden has introduced a bill outlawing trillion-dollar debt-paying platinum coins.

Absurd and dangerous, he called the idea. No real appreciation for tongue-in-cheek, either, I guess.

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